The Bombing of Dresden was a military bombing by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) as part of the allied forces between 13 February and 15 February 1945 in the Second World War. In four raids, altogether 3,600 planes, of which 1,300 heavy bombers dropped as much as 650,000 incendiaries, together with 8,000 lb. high-explosive bombs and hundreds of 4,000-pounders, in all more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices were dropped on the city, the Baroque capital of the German state of Saxony. The resulting firestorm destroyed 15 square miles (39 square kilometres) of the city centre

A 1953 United States Air Force report written by Joseph W. Angell defended the operation as the justified bombing of a military and industrial target, which was a major rail transportation and communication centre, housing 110 factories and 50,000 workers in support of the Nazi war effort. Against this, several researchers have argued that not all of the communications infrastructure, such as the bridges, were in fact targeted, nor were the extensive industrial areas outside the city centre. It has been argued that Dresden was a cultural landmark of little or no military significance, a "Florence on the Elbe" (Elbflorenz), as it was known, and the attacks were indiscriminate area bombing and not proportionate to the commensurate military gains.

In the first few decades after the war, some death toll estimates were as high as 250,000, which are now considered unreasonable. An independent investigation commissioned by the city council in 2010 reported a minimum of 22,700 victims with a maximum total number of fatalities of 25,000.

In direct comparison with the bombing of Hamburg in 1943, which created one of the greatest firestorms raised by the RAF and United States Army Air Force, killing roughly 50,000 civilians in Hamburg and practically destroying the entire city, and the bombing of Pforzheim in 1945, killing roughly 18,000 civilians, the bombing raids over Dresden were not the most severe of World War II. However, they continue to be recognized as one of the worst examples of civilian suffering caused by strategic bombing, and have become exposed among the moral causes célèbres of the Second World War. Post-war discussion, popular legends, historical revisionism and Cold War propaganda of the bombing includes debate by commentators, officials and historians as to whether or not the bombing was justified, and whether its outcome constituted a war crime.

See the movie (and/or read the book) "Slaughterhouse 5" {Kurt Vonnegut}Kurt was a POW in Dresden, during the bombings.

Thanks, I will try to check it out. The wikipedia article is extensive, I read this morning:

"Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) was based on his own experiences as a prisoner of war at Dresden during the bombing. Vonnegut recalled "utter destruction" and "carnage unfathomable." The Germans put him and other POWs to work gathering bodies for mass burial. "But there were too many corpses to bury. So instead the Nazis sent in troops with flamethrowers. All these civilians' remains were burned to ashes."

In the special introduction to the 1976 Franklin Library edition of the novel, he wrote:

"The Dresden atrocity, tremendously expensive and meticulously planned, was so meaningless, finally, that only one person on the entire planet got any benefit from it. I am that person. I wrote this book, which earned a lot of money for me and made my reputation, such as it is. One way or another, I got two or three dollars for every person killed. Some business I'm in."

This experience was also used in several of his other books and is included in his posthumously published stories: Armageddon in Retrospect."

_________________The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true Art and Science. - Albert Einstein

and can anybody confirm that the pilots shot each and everybody down who tried to escape? remember the two complete years in history here in germany about the third reich, dimly that half in biology, chemistry and none of phsics. They still are showing docus every day, keeping them in a state of guilt. Considering that hitler, how could a mere private, a lance-corporal become so powerful?! (money from the world-wide operating military-industrial complex?) lured the voters with working places, has the world learned one thing? here is a thought: that conception of an evil being from the times of the bible onwards made folks utterly miserable. And the priests were good at that. All their life got in a petty mess, every second and idea became a spoilage. Superstition? every problem is man-made. Four-hundred and eleven years ago Giordano Bruno got in a bit of that; and this for being a person to my liking. Give's ey nudge when UFOs have landed.

_________________ya wa? the mewzick's pretty spectacular, geez. ..where's me chic cap swaggering to? rather mad. If only others would hark. Next phing on the wish-list gonna be a web-capable mobile iets, an hify-amp powered by solar-panels and propellers on that drat hat.

1953 – Jonas Salk announced the successful test of his polio vaccine on a small group of adults and children.

Jonas E. Salk (October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995) was an American medical researcher and virologist, best known for his discovery and development of the first safe and effective polio vaccine. He was born in New York City to parents from Ashkenazi Jewish Russian immigrant families. Although they themselves did not have much formal education, they were determined to see their children succeed. While attending New York University School of Medicine, he stood out from his peers not just because of his academic prowess, but because he chose to do medical research instead of becoming a physician.

Until 1955, when the Salk vaccine was introduced, polio was considered the most frightening public health problem of the post-war United States. Annual epidemics were increasingly devastating. The 1952 epidemic was the worst outbreak in the nation's history. Of nearly 58,000 cases reported that year, 3,145 people died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis,[1] with most of the victims children. The "public reaction was to a plague", said historian William O'Neill. "Citizens of urban areas were to be terrified every summer when this frightful visitor returned." According to a 2009 PBS documentary, "Apart from the atomic bomb, America's greatest fear was polio."[2] As a result, scientists were in a frantic race to find a way to prevent or cure the disease. U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt was the world's most recognized victim of the disease and founded the organization that would fund the development of a vaccine.

In 1947, Salk accepted an appointment to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In 1948, he undertook a project funded by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis to determine the number of different types of polio virus. Salk saw an opportunity to extend this project towards developing a vaccine against polio, and, together with the skilled research team he assembled, devoted himself to this work for the next seven years. The field trial set up to test the Salk vaccine was, according to O'Neill, "the most elaborate program of its kind in history, involving 20,000 physicians and public health officers, 64,000 school personnel, and 220,000 volunteers." Over 1,800,000 school children took part in the trial.[3] When news of the vaccine's success was made public on April 12, 1955, Salk was hailed as a "miracle worker", and the day "almost became a national holiday." His sole focus had been to develop a safe and effective vaccine as rapidly as possible, with no interest in personal profit.

When he was asked in a televised interview who owned the patent to the vaccine, Salk replied: "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"

1953 – The CIA began Project MKULTRA, an illegal, covert human research program into mind control.

Project MKULTRA, or MK-ULTRA, was the code name for a covert, illegal CIA human research program, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence. This official U.S. government program began in the early 1950s, continuing at least through the late 1960s, and it used U.S. and Canadian citizens as its test subjects.

The published evidence indicates that Project MKULTRA involved the use of many methodologies to manipulate individual mental states and alter brain functions, including the surreptitious administration of drugs and other chemicals, sensory deprivation, isolation, and verbal and sexual abuse.

Project MKULTRA was first brought to wide public attention in 1975 by the U.S. Congress, through investigations by the Church Committee, and by a presidential commission known as the Rockefeller Commission. Investigative efforts were hampered by the fact that CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all MKULTRA files destroyed in 1973; the Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission investigations relied on the sworn testimony of direct participants and on the relatively small number of documents that survived Helms' destruction order.

In 1977, a FOIA request uncovered a cache of 20,000 documents relating to project MKULTRA, which led to the Senate Hearings of 1977. In recent times most information regarding MKULTRA has been officially declassified.

Although the CIA insists that MKULTRA-type experiments have been abandoned, 14-year CIA veteran Victor Marchetti has stated in various interviews that the CIA routinely conducts disinformation campaigns and that CIA mind control research continued. In a 1977 interview, Marchetti specifically called the CIA claim that MKULTRA was abandoned a "cover story."

On the Senate floor in 1977, Senator Ted Kennedy said:

Quote:

The Deputy Director of the CIA revealed that over thirty universities and institutions were involved in an "extensive testing and experimentation" program which included covert drug tests on unwitting citizens "at all social levels, high and low, native Americans and foreign." Several of these tests involved the administration of LSD to "unwitting subjects in social situations." At least one death, that of Dr. Olson, resulted from these activities. The Agency itself acknowledged that these tests made little scientific sense. The agents doing the monitoring were not qualified scientific observers.

Everyone would gatherOn the twenty-fourth of MaySitting in the sandTo watch the fireworks display.Dancing fires on the beach,Singing songs together...Though it's just a memory,Some memories last forever.

_________________The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true Art and Science. - Albert Einstein

Lucille Ball's 100th birthday today. Luuuuuuuuuuucy! What have you done now? Oh Ricky! Why can't I come down to the club!?

I was watching Scarface on tv last night. First time I'd seen it all the way through. There was a nightclub scene with Richard Belser doing stand up making Desi and Lucy jokes. Just a bit of synchronicity or perhaps happenstance.

Lucille Ball's 100th birthday today. Luuuuuuuuuuucy! What have you done now? Oh Ricky! Why can't I come down to the club!?

I was watching Scarface on tv last night. First time I'd seen it all the way through. There was a nightclub scene with Richard Belser doing stand up making Desi and Lucy jokes. Just a bit of synchronicity or perhaps happenstance.

I to watched scarface last night.(que Twighlight Zone music).Oh my god,it's like an acid flashback or deja`vu with some serindipity thrown in.Great couch potato's think alike! (During the commercials I listen to Zappa of course.) Do-do-do-do. .On this day KillUgly & Kapt.Kiirk had a cosmic connection over the television airwaves and a girl named Lucille.Yowser! All good joss/karma

1755 – A 9.0 Mw earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated Lisbon, an event which led to the birth of modern seismology and earthquake engineering.The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake, was a megathrust earthquake that took place on Saturday 1 November 1755, at around 9:40 in the morning. The earthquake was followed by fires and a tsunami, which almost totally destroyed Lisbon in the Kingdom of Portugal, and adjoining areas. Seismologists today estimate the Lisbon earthquake had a magnitude in the range 8.5–9.0 on the moment magnitude scale, with an epicenter in the Atlantic Ocean about 200 km (120 mi) west-southwest of Cape St. Vincent. Estimates place the death toll in Lisbon alone between 10,000 and 100,000 people, making it one of the deadliest earthquakes in history.

The earthquake accentuated political tensions in the Kingdom of Portugal and profoundly disrupted the country's 18th-century colonial ambitions. The event was widely discussed and dwelt upon by European Enlightenment philosophers, and inspired major developments in theodicy and in the philosophy of the sublime. As the first earthquake studied scientifically for its effects over a large area, it led to the birth of modern seismology and earthquake engineering.

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